THE CONCERT WAS AWESOME. i got there about 3 or 4 hours ahead of time and killed time by walking laps around the arena and taking photos of stuff i found, like wilt chamberlain.
i killed some more time inside once they opened up this bar/restaurant/food court thing inside by having a “squeeze box sour” (from a cute bartender named rachel) and watched a dvd of “tommy: live” with people like elton john singing “pinball wizard”. eventually at 6:30 they let us head to our seats.
they had the pretenders come out as the opening act, and while chrissy hynde is ok (both in aging rock-star looks and talent), i’m personally not that into her since she’s kind of womp-womp-worthy for giving a shout out to PETA and vegetarians and saying that the reason why people conflict with other people is because they eat meat? that’s crazy talk. besides, i like my steak. in any case, they played one (maybe two) song that i know, and i know it wasn’t “brass in pocket”, so who knows what it was.
songs i can remember in a general order:
– can’t explain
– the seeker
– who are you
– behind blue eyes
– random songs from their new album
– baba o’riley
– eminence front
– my generation
– won’t get fooled again
encore:
– pinball wizard
– medley of other songs from “tommy”
– “tea and theatre” from the new album
it only seems like they didn’t do that many songs, but of the ones they did (especially “my generation”… ESPECIALLY) were super-long extended versions with awesome solos. there’s definitely going to be a lot of songs in there that i can’t remember that they did or when they did them. pete started “my generation” by shouting “THE WORLD IS FUCKING FULL OF PEOPLE WHO CAN PLAY GUITAR!!”, bahahahaha! they also said how they appreciated us hard-working folks coming out to spend our hard-earned money by seeing them because since they’re kind of the working-class’ rock group, having used to be regular ol’ working stiffs. they loved philadelphia and said how nice they like it there (the radio people afterwards said that the band loves the whole northeast corridor, from dc to boston) and they want to come back this way again.
when i was leaving i saw a fight break out in the concourse, fists swinging and people all over the place, it was crazy (THEY MUST BE MEAT EATERS HURRRHURR). on the radio, a local station that sponsored the concert was interviewing people as they were leaving and everybody loved it (though one guy said that he wished they played some quadrophenia stuff). they said that some people who had gone to multiple concerts by the who (in the past, and on this tour) said that this was definitely one of the absolute best performances they’ve done ever, and i’m so excited that i got to see it 😀 😀
their world tour is supposed to come back through the states in 2007 (it goes through the end of next fall), and i DEFINITELY want to see them again. oh man was that a fantastic concert. i definitely feel that i got my $97 (plus $15 ticketmaster charges) worth in the first 15 minutes and the rest of the show was free. oh man oh man oh man.
now i will ask for the cd / dvd set for christmas. 😀 …or not, since it won’t be ready until december 31… looks like i’ll have to buy it myself. but still! i can’t wait to see that performance (and the who in concert) yet again!